Project Bylaws

Apache Ant™ Project Bylaws

This document defines the bylaws under which the Apache Ant project
operates. It defines the roles and responsibilities of the
project, who may vote, how voting works, how conflicts are resolved,
etc.

Ant is a project of the
Apache Software
Foundation. The foundation holds the copyright on Apache
code including the code in the Ant codebase. The
foundation FAQ
explains the operation and background of the foundation.

Ant is typical of Apache projects in that it operates under a set of
principles, known collectively as the "Apache Way". If you are
new to Apache development, please refer to the
Incubator project
for more information on how Apache projects operate. Note: the
incubator project has only been recently set up and does not yet explain
the Apache Way in great detail.

Roles and Responsibilities

Apache projects define a set of roles with associated rights and
responsibilities. These roles govern what tasks an individual may perform
within the project. The roles are defined in the following sections

Users

The most important participants in the project are people who use our
software. The majority of our developers start out as users and guide
their development efforts from the user's perspective.

Users contribute to the Apache projects by providing feedback to
developers in the form of bug reports and feature suggestions. As
well, users participate in the Apache community by helping other users
on mailing lists and user support forums.

Developers

All of the volunteers who are contributing time, code, documentation,
or resources to the Ant Project. A developer that makes sustained,
welcome contributions to the project may be invited to become a
Committer, though the exact timing of such invitations depends on many
factors.

Committers

The project's Committers are responsible for the project's technical
management. All committers have write access to the project's source
repositories. Committers may cast binding votes on any technical
discussion regarding the project.

Committer access is by invitation only and must be approved by lazy
consensus of the active PMC members. A Committer is considered emeritus
by their own declaration or by not contributing in any form to the
project for over six months. An emeritus committer may request
reinstatement of commit access from the PMC. Such reinstatement is
subject to lazy consensus of active PMC members.

Commit access can be revoked by a unanimous vote of all the active
PMC members (except the committer in question if they are also a PMC member).

All Apache committers are required to have a signed Contributor License
Agreement (CLA) on file with the Apache Software Foundation. There is a
Committer FAQ
which provides more details on the requirements for Committers

A committer who makes a sustained contribution to the project may be
invited to become a member of the PMC. The form of contribution is
not limited to code. It can also include code review, helping out
users on the mailing lists, documentation, etc.

Project Management Committee

The Project Management Committee (PMC) for Apache Ant was created by a
resolution of the board of the Apache
Software Foundation on 18th November 2002. The PMC is
responsible to the board and the ASF for the management and oversight
of the Apache Ant codebase. The responsibilities of the PMC include

Deciding what is distributed as products of the Apache Ant project.
In particular all releases must be approved by the PMC

Membership of the PMC is by invitation only and must be approved by a
lazy consensus of active PMC members. A PMC member is considered
"emeritus" by their own declaration or by not contributing in
any form to the project for over six months. An emeritus member may
request reinstatement to the PMC. Such reinstatement is subject to lazy
consensus of the active PMC members. Membership of the PMC can be
revoked by an unanimous vote of all the active PMC members other than
the member in question.

The chair of the PMC is appointed by the ASF board. The chair is an
office holder of the Apache Software Foundation (Vice President,
Apache Ant) and has primary responsibility to the board for the
management of the projects within the scope of the Ant PMC. The chair
reports to the board quarterly on developments within the Ant project.
The PMC may consider the position of PMC chair annually and if
supported by 2/3 Majority may recommend a new chair to the board.
Ultimately, however, it is the board's responsibility who it chooses
to appoint as the PMC chair.

Decision Making

Within the Ant project, different types of decisions require different
forms of approval. For example, the
previous section describes
several decisions which require "lazy consensus" approval. This
section defines how voting is performed, the types of approvals, and which
types of decision require which type of approval.

Voting

Decisions regarding the project are made by votes on the primary project
development mailing list (dev@ant.apache.org). Where necessary,
PMC voting may take place on the private Ant PMC mailing list.
Votes are clearly indicated by subject line starting with [VOTE] or
[PMC-VOTE]. Votes may contain multiple items for approval and these
should be clearly separated. Voting is carried out by replying to the
vote mail. Voting may take four flavours

+1

"Yes," "Agree," or "the action should be
performed." In general, this vote also indicates a willingness
on the behalf of the voter in "making it happen"

+0

This vote indicates a willingness for the action under
consideration to go ahead. The voter, however will not be able
to help.

-0

This vote indicates that the voter does not, in general, agree with
the proposed action but is not concerned enough to prevent the
action going ahead.

-1

This is a negative vote. On issues where consensus is required,
this vote counts as a veto. All vetoes must
contain an explanation of why the veto is appropriate. Vetoes with
no explanation are void. It may also be appropriate for a -1 vote
to include an alternative course of action.

All participants in the Ant project are encouraged to show their
agreement with or against a particular action by voting. For technical
decisions, only the votes of active committers are binding. Non binding
votes are still useful for those with binding votes to understand the
perception of an action in the wider Ant community. For PMC decisions,
only the votes of PMC members are binding.

Voting can also be applied to changes made to the Ant codebase. These
typically take the form of a veto (-1) in reply to the commit message
sent when the commit is made.

Approvals

These are the types of approvals that can be sought. Different actions
require different types of approvals

Consensus

For this to pass, all voters with binding votes must vote and there
can be no binding vetoes (-1). Consensus votes are rarely required
due to the impracticality of getting all eligible voters to cast a
vote.

An action with lazy approval is implicitly allowed unless a -1 vote
is received, at which time, depending on the type of action, either
lazy majority or lazy consensus approval must be obtained.

2/3 Majority

Some actions require a 2/3 majority of active committers or PMC
members to pass. Such actions typically affect the foundation
of the project (e.g. adopting a new codebase to replace an existing
product). The higher threshold is designed to ensure such changes
are strongly supported. To pass this vote requires at least 2/3 of
binding vote holders to vote +1

Vetoes

A valid, binding veto cannot be overruled. If a veto is cast, it must be
accompanied by a valid reason explaining the reasons for the veto. The
validity of a veto, if challenged, can be confirmed by anyone who has
a binding vote. This does not necessarily signify agreement with the
veto - merely that the veto is valid.

If you disagree with a valid veto, you must lobby the person casting
the veto to withdraw their veto. If a veto is not withdrawn, the action
that has been vetoed must be reversed in a timely manner.

Actions

This section describes the various actions which are undertaken within
the project, the corresponding approval required for that action and
those who have binding votes over the action.

Action

Description

Approval

Binding Votes

Code Change

A change made to a codebase of the project and committed
by a committer. This includes source code, documentation, website
content, etc.

Lazy approval and then lazy consensus.

Active committers.

Release Plan

Defines the timetable and actions for a release. The plan also
nominates a Release Manager.

Lazy majority

Active committers

Product Release

When a release of one of the project's products is ready, a vote is
required to accept the release as an official release of the
project.

Lazy Majority

Active PMC members

Adoption of New Codebase

When the codebase for an existing, released product is to be
replaced with an alternative codebase. If such a vote fails to
gain approval, the existing code base will continue.

This also covers the creation of new sub-projects
within the project

2/3 majority

Active committers

New Committer

When a new committer is proposed for the project

Lazy consensus

Active PMC members

New PMC Member

When a committer is proposed for the PMC

Lazy consensus

Active PMC members

Committer Removal

When removal of commit privileges is sought.

Note: Such actions will also be referred to the ASF
board by the PMC chair

Consensus

Active PMC members (excluding the committer in question if a
member of the PMC).

PMC Member Removal

When removal of a PMC member is sought.

Note: Such actions will also be referred to the
ASF board by the PMC chair

Consensus

Active PMC members (excluding the member in question).

Voting Timeframes

Votes are open for a period of 1 week to allow all active voters
time to consider the vote. Votes relating to code changes are not
subject to a strict timetable but should be made as timely as possible.